AUSTRALIA
‘Savage’ killer jailed
An Australian man was yesterday jailed for 36 years for the rape and murder of Arab-Israeli student Aya Maasarwe in Melbourne. Codey Herrmann, now 21, is to spend at least 30 years in prison for the January murder that Victorian Supreme Court judge Elizabeth Hollingworth described as a “savage attack.” The body of 21-year-old Maasarwe was found by passers-by near a tram stop in outer Melbourne just hours after she was attacked on her way home. She was killed after getting off a tram near the university where she was completing a year-long exchange. There was an outpouring of grief among Melbournians, who held emotional vigils after the murder, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets calling for an end to violence against women.
INDIA
Toddler stuck in well dies
The body of a two-year-old boy trapped 26m down a well since Friday was recovered yesterday, authorities said. Sujith Wilson was the second toddler in four months to grab nationwide attention after falling into the 30cm diameter pipe while playing near his home in Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu State. A post-mortem examination would be carried out to determine the cause of death, district official S. Sivarasu told reporters. Rescuers said Wilson was unconscious but breathing until Sunday morning, but they had been unable to check his condition since then as he had slipped further down.
SINGAPORE
UK ex-headmaster jailed
A British former headmaster of an international school in China has been jailed for 10 months after admitting possession and consumption of methamphetamine, officials said yesterday. Damien Michael Charnock, 60, used to be the head of Dulwich College Shanghai, a branch of the exclusive London private school. Police arrested Charnock in March at an apartment and discovered bags containing the drug and a glass contraption for smoking it, court documents showed. Charnock pleaded guilty to three drug charges, and the attorney-general’s chambers confirmed he was jailed on Friday.
CAMBODIA
Search on for missing Briton
Police said they had questioned at least 20 people, but made no arrests as they continued the search for a 21-year-old British woman who went missing last week. Divers, land-based teams and police drones have been enlisted in the search for Amelia Bambridge, who was last seen on Thursday leaving for a beach party on the island of Koh Rong, which is popular with backpackers. Preah Sihanouk Provincial Police Chief Chuon Narin said at least 20 people had been questioned on whether they met Bambridge the night of the party. He added that he feared she might have drowned.
AUSTRALIA
Shark attacks two Britons
A shark yesterday bit off a British tourist’s foot and mauled another British tourist’s leg, as the men snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, officials said. The men aged 22 and 28 had been on a snorkeling tour in the Whitsunday Islands when they were attacked, tour organizer ZigZag Whitsundays said. They were brought 11km bo boat to the mainland town of Airlie Beach where paramedics were waiting for them, Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman Mel Mangan said. They were then flown by helicopter south to a hospital in the city of Mackay in serious, but stable conditions, RACQ CQ Rescue said.
EL SALVADOR
US extends stay for 190,000
The US has extended a measure allowing 190,000 Salvadoreans to remain and work legally in the country, President Nayib Bukele said on Monday. Temporary protected status was created in 2001 and granted to Salvadoreans already in the US following two devastating earthquakes in El Salvador. The status was scheduled to end on Jan. 2, but has been extended by a year. About 3 million Salvadoreans live in the US. Last year, they sent home almost US$5.5 billion in remittances to family members, accounting for close to 16 percent of GDP.
GUINEA-BISSAU
President axes government
The president on Monday announced that he is dismissing the government with immediate effect, throwing the country into further chaos and casting doubt over next month’s election. President Jose Mario Vaz’s decree, read out over national radio, said that the “serious political crisis” in the country “prevents the normal operation of some institutions” and led to his decision to dismiss the government. Vaz’s five-year mandate ended on June 23, but he is staying on temporarily under a mediation plan forged by the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States. The Supreme Court this month said that it had approved 12 candidates, including Vaz.
UKRAINE
Driver trades fares for songs
An Uber driver is offering his passengers rides for a song by refunding their bill if they appear on his YouTube channel performing their favorite tunes. Andriy Turko has fitted a karaoke system in his cab in a drive to discover new musical talent in his home city of Vinnytsia. Anyone who agrees to be filmed using it for his “Crazytaho Karaoke” channel gets their Uber fee paid back in cash. “They are people who sing songs, they are people who want to sing, but their talent is not discovered yet,” the 41-year-old former nightclub master of ceremonies said. “Maybe they used to write poems or compose songs. And I want to offer those people an open platform.”
UNITED STATES
People flock to ‘Joker’ steps
Move over, Rocky, there is a new stairway to climb. A set of outdoor steps in the Bronx has become a tourist attraction in the past few weeks since the release of the movie Joker. In the movie, lead actor Joaquin Phoenix dances as he goes down the steps, wearing a bright red suit and clown makeup. These days, residents using the steps are being joined by tourists trying to recreate the scene. The visitors have been taking selfies and some have even shown up in costume, but not everyone is thrilled with the upsurge in popularity. “We live in the neighborhood, it’s taking up all of our time, we’re all being inconvenienced,” resident Cathyrine Spencer said.
UNITED STATES
Bus extracted from sinkhole
A bus that was partially swallowed when a sinkhole opened during morning rush hour in downtown Pittsburgh has been removed from the hole. The Port Authority of Allegheny County said that the driver and a 56-year-old female passenger were aboard the bus when it plunged into the hole on Monday morning. The passenger was treated at a hospital and released, officials said. Pittsburgh Public Safety Department Director Wendell Hissrich said that the bus was sitting on three power lines, two of them 22,000-volt lines. There are also fiber-optic cables, damage to which could affect communications in the tri-state area, he said. The lines and pipes are to be assessed and repaired.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese